Desired Mercenary Changes for next patch/update. PLEASE READ DEVELOPERS!

[Ryuku-sama]

Reserve Powercell grants 10 stacks of Supercharge.

 

The set-up time for the Commando/Mercenary is significantly higher than Sentinels (Valorous Call, quicker build-up time of Centering), Scoundrel (1 stack of Upper Hand), Sage (no pre-stacking at all). If a Commando DPS wants to build up his stacks he has to gimp his own DPS by spamming Hammer Shot/Charged Bolts.

 

Make it happen BioWare.

 

Eh?? If a Mando want his stakcs he pre stack them with Med Shot before the fight -.-

[Ryuku-sama]

I had fate in you...but you couldn't detect my sarcasm

 

I had to put numbers to support your sarcasm

[Max_Killjoy]

You lost me...

 

...I genuinely have no idea what you are talking about

 

That the claim that Supercharge adds "complexity" to the Merc is silly.

 

You really don't have to trade anything off, you can start most fights with the stack of 10 ready to go from self-spamming Kolto Shot, and Tracer Missile rebuilds the stacks pretty fast since it's core to the rotation, at least on Arsenal.

 

The two powers that current burn 10 stacks of Supercharge -- Supercharge Gas and Supercharge Celerity -- could just be regular offensive and group cooldowns respectively, without the inane stack mechanism from Supercharge.

 

The 1% damage buff from a full stack is... what it is. *shrug*

[cs_zoltan]

That the claim that Supercharge adds "complexity" to the Merc is silly.

 

You really don't have to trade anything off, you can start most fights with the stack of 10 ready to go from self-spamming Kolto Shot, and Tracer Missile rebuilds the stacks pretty fast since it's core to the rotation, at least on Arsenal.

 

The two powers that current burn 10 stacks of Supercharge -- Supercharge Gas and Supercharge Celerity -- could just be regular offensive and group cooldowns respectively, without the inane stack mechanism from Supercharge.

 

The 1% damage buff from a full stack is... what it is. *shrug*

 

I've said it before but if SCG had a cooldown and for example you just used it before a downtime you'd have to wait for the cooldown, but with stacks you can just spam Med Shot during downtime and have it ready to go after it.

 

Also it would change IO priority system, becuase right now FM > PS from raw damage point of view, but if we account for the SC stack that PS builds then PS>FM.

 

 

But why does it bother you? Just do what you always do and you'll have it up without you worrying about it.

[Max_Killjoy]

I've said it before but if SCG had a cooldown and for example you just used it before a downtime you'd have to wait for the cooldown, but with stacks you can just spam Med Shot during downtime and have it ready to go after it.

 

Also it would change IO priority system, becuase right now FM > PS from raw damage point of view, but if we account for the SC stack that PS builds then PS>FM.

 

 

But why does it bother you? Just do what you always do and you'll have it up without you worrying about it.

 

To me, the "you can always have it up because of Kolto/Med Shot" argument doesn't hold much water... it just makes the whole thing into more between-fight maintenance, and actually puts a big needle in the entire "adds complexity" argument.

[Macroeconomics]

I've said it before but if SCG had a cooldown and for example you just used it before a downtime you'd have to wait for the cooldown, but with stacks you can just spam Med Shot during downtime and have it ready to go after it.

 

It is in fact NOT a good idea to always spam Med Shot. Yes it does give you supercharges. BUT, doing that will also likely put your relic procs on CD. The sudden appearance of an enemy player ( a stealther for example) makes that a dubious strategy. This is not about complexity. I actually like that Merc IO is probably the most complex dps class for pvp. But with complexity comes the need for tactical finesse. If you believe that spamming Med Shot is your best tactic, then you have not grasped the complexity of the subclass.

Edited January 8, 2015 by Macroeconomics

[cs_zoltan]

It is in fact NOT a good idea to always spam Med Shot. Yes it does give you supercharges. BUT, doing that will also likely put your relic procs on CD. The sudden appearance of an enemy player ( a stealther for example) makes that a dubious strategy. This is not about complexity. I actually like that Merc IO is probably the most complex dps class for pvp. But with complexity comes the need for tactical finesse. If you believe that spamming Med Shot is your best tactic, then you have not grasped the complexity of the subclass.

 

I was talking about boss fights, but sure go ahead and call me a retard without knowing context

Also a ~10sec delay on relic procs is not even close to being as bad as no SCG ready...

[venomlash]

It is in fact NOT a good idea to always spam Med Shot. Yes it does give you supercharges. BUT, doing that will also likely put your relic procs on CD. The sudden appearance of an enemy player ( a stealther for example) makes that a dubious strategy. This is not about complexity. I actually like that Merc IO is probably the most complex dps class for pvp. But with complexity comes the need for tactical finesse. If you believe that spamming Med Shot is your best tactic, then you have not grasped the complexity of the subclass.

 

Really, man?

You're saying that it's better either to NOT have Supercharge available at the start of a fight, or to waste a Heroic utility that could have been put into Shock Absorbers or Overclock or Forced March or something...all so that you'll have your relic procs available if you get jumped by a stealther?

Maximumtrolling.bmp

[Macroeconomics]

I was talking about boss fights, but sure go ahead and call me a retard without knowing context

 

Preparing Supercharge prior to a boss fight is irrelevant to the discussion - which I remind you is about the complexity of IO Merc gameplay. Prior to a boss fight you simply remove your relics, ramp up Supercharge and then put the relics back on. The complexity of managing Supercharge comes from deciding whether or not to ramp charges at the cost of possibly wasting a relic proc during pauses in combat - a situation which occurs in almost every wz. And that decision as will be shown below is NOT in favor of spamming Med Shot regardless of circumstances.

 

And I did not call you a retard. You did that to yourself.

 

Really, man?

You're saying that it's better either to NOT have Supercharge available at the start of a fight, or to waste a Heroic utility that could have been put into Shock Absorbers or Overclock or Forced March or something...all so that you'll have your relic procs available if you get jumped by a stealther?

Maximumtrolling.bmp

 

Way to not understand the complexity of the picture. At the start of a wz (or pve boss fight), that decision does not have to be made as noted above. But in the middle of a wz, there will often be times when you are out of combat, and have less than 10 charges (or their timer is about to expire). Correctly deciding on whether or not to use Med Shot depends on the circumstances - the claim that one should spam Med Shot all the time is naive and shows a lack of understanding about the class. The best circumstances in which to use Med Shot (for Supercharge buffing), is when both your relic procs are on CD. The worst circumstances in which to use Med Shot is when you are both relic procs are off CD and available. In that case a single use of Med Shot gives you a 0.1% increase in damage output for a 42% chance of losing one relic proc and a 9% chance of losing both relic procs. That is clearly unadvisable unless one has clear visibility on remaining out of combat.

[venomlash]

The worst circumstances in which to use Med Shot is when you are both relic procs are off CD and available. In that case a single use of Med Shot gives you a 0.1% increase in damage output for a 42% chance of losing one relic proc and a 9% chance of losing both relic procs. That is clearly unadvisable unless one has clear visibility on remaining out of combat.

 

News flash: it's NOT about the 0.1% DPS/HPS increase. It's about having 10 stacks on hand so that you can, at the time of your choosing, unleash the full might of your lolburst.

If you've already got 10 stacks, sure, don't use Med Shot unless you've got <10s on the stacks. But if you have fewer than 10 and aren't in combat, spam that Med Shot until you do!

[LtBombshell]

SHOUTING PLEASE READ DEVELOPERS DOES NOT MAKE IT ANY MORE LIKELY THEY WILL READ YOUR POST.

 

That irks me a lot. It seems like every poster thinks their post is the most important one on the forums, and therefore by calling out the devs (bonus points: saying MUSCO or ERIC in the title) in the title there is a greater chance of them responding/it being read.

[Macroeconomics]

News flash: it's NOT about the 0.1% DPS/HPS increase. It's about having 10 stacks on hand so that you can, at the time of your choosing, unleash the full might of your lolburst.

If you've already got 10 stacks, sure, don't use Med Shot unless you've got <10s on the stacks. But if you have fewer than 10 and aren't in combat, spam that Med Shot until you do!

 

Disagree. If I have 9 stacks, then yeah I will usually chance the relic proc loss to get that 10th stack. If I have 0 stacks? No. Not unless I have visibility on remaining out of combat for awhile. But at least you have recognized the trade-off here between Supercharge stack progression and relic proc loss. The big variable here is the probability of combat resumption in the near future as that is the event that triggers the penalty for relic proc loss. Early resumption of combat also cuts short your pre-combat stack progression benefits.

 

Let's put this situation in a concrete example that will help to illustrate the issues involved. Let's say you die in Voidstar (your team is defending the first door) and when you respawn you see the door is about to open. You have time for a single GCD before the door opens? Do you use MedShot? If both your relics are off CD, then you most certainly should not. Doing so would give you a 0.1% output increase in exchange for an expected loss of 0.6 relic procs. That is not good. On the other hand if the door isn't going to open for 4 more quarter increments, then yes, Med Shot usage is a good idea.

 

Bottom line here - Supercharge stack progression via Med Shot usage is best done with relics unequipped or on CD. Otherwise there is a trade-off involved and an efficient Merc will take circumstances into account when deciding whether to use Med Shot.

[cs_zoltan]

Preparing Supercharge prior to a boss fight is irrelevant to the discussion - which I remind you is about the complexity of IO Merc gameplay. Prior to a boss fight you simply remove your relics, ramp up Supercharge and then put the relics back on. The complexity of managing Supercharge comes from deciding whether or not to ramp charges at the cost of possibly wasting a relic proc during pauses in combat - a situation which occurs in almost every wz. And that decision as will be shown below is NOT in favor of spamming Med Shot regardless of circumstances.

Are you for real? I said downtimes DURING boss fight, not before....

 

 

And if you worry so much about relic procs you must be really bad because you die withing 20sec every time. Otherwise the proc delay is negligible.

Edited January 9, 2015 by cs_zoltan

[Ryuku-sama]

IO : On a standard rotation, SSC Superburn and only Superburn accounts for 300 DPS on dummy. The DoTs buff is another 20 DPS.. Relics procs however accounts for about 200 DPS. I don,t know for you, but for me delaying SSC for your relics procs is wasting way more DPS than delaying your proc and getting more SSC uptime.

[Nightkin]

IO : On a standard rotation, SSC Superburn and only Superburn accounts for 300 DPS on dummy. The DoTs buff is another 20 DPS.. Relics procs however accounts for about 200 DPS. I don,t know for you, but for me delaying SSC for your relics procs is wasting way more DPS than delaying your proc and getting more SSC uptime.

Is supercharge really the biggest flaw you guys can find with the class? I dont mean the guy im quoting specifically but to me there is so much more obvious flaws with this class then supercharge to discuss

[Master-Nala]

SHOUTING PLEASE READ DEVELOPERS DOES NOT MAKE IT ANY MORE LIKELY THEY WILL READ YOUR POST.

 

That irks me a lot. It seems like every poster thinks their post is the most important one on the forums, and therefore by calling out the devs (bonus points: saying MUSCO or ERIC in the title) in the title there is a greater chance of them responding/it being read.

 

You know, while I agree with your sentiment, I literally paid more attention to your post because of the shouting.

 

On-Topic:

 

Mercs/Commandos need:

 

1) Kolto Overload's health limit raised to 75% from 35%;

2) Put Healing Scan/Advanced Medical Probe as the level 10 Medic skill and move Rapid Scan/Medical Probe back to being a baseline ability (changing the appropriate DPS talents accordingly)

3) Give the Preventative Medicine effect on Bacta Infusion/Emergency Scan to the power baseline

Edited January 9, 2015 by Master-Nala

[TezMoney]

2) Put Healing Scan/Advanced Medical Probe as the level 10 Medic skill and move Rapid Scan/Medical Probe back to being a baseline ability (changing the appropriate DPS talents accordingly)

 

Only problem with this would be that Advanced Targeting would then change to include Rapid Scan. The extra 5% on a heal with no CD and a backbone of Bodyguard rotation would be a pretty significant buff as well as the healer set bonus crit'ing Healing Scan instead of Rapid Scan. They could only allow AT to apply to Emergency Scan, but that would be a nerf to the proc overall.

Edited January 9, 2015 by TezMoney

[Master-Nala]

Only problem with this would be that Advanced Targeting would then change to include Rapid Scan. The extra 5% on a heal with no CD and a backbone of Bodyguard rotation would be a pretty significant buff as well as the healer set bonus crit'ing Healing Scan instead of Rapid Scan. They could only allow AT to apply to Emergency Scan, but that would be a nerf to the proc overall.

 

The wouldn't need to change it at all. DPS specs really wouldn't need the 5% on Rapid Scan since getting a heal with no cooldown would be a huge buff overall. Advanced Targeting already buffs their rotational attacks and Emergency Scan, it seems a small tradeoff to lose the buff to Healing Scan for the buff of having Rapid Scan with its shorter cast and no cooldown.

[Burrowa]

Can we just go back to spamming tracer missile please? Spec is way too hard

[Arehonn]

This is what I would do:

 

- Remove Decoy from Gunnery and make it a passive ability for Commando

 

- Remove Shock Absorbers from the Heroic utility section and make it a passive ability for Commando

 

- Add a new utility in the Heroic section called Charged Armor: Consumes all stacks of Charged Barrier and resets the cooldown of Diversion. Only useable at 5 stacks of Charged Barrier.

 

- Remove Charged Barrier from the Skillful section and make it a passive ability for Commando

 

- Add a new utility in the Skillful section called Tripwire: Activating Hold the Line will now knockdown 4 enemy targets in a 5m radius for 2 seconds.

 

DPS-wise, Commando is pretty damn good. This would help it make it a little less squishy.

[Macroeconomics]

Are you for real? I said downtimes DURING boss fight, not before....

And if you worry so much about relic procs you must be really bad because you die withing 20sec every time. Otherwise the proc delay is negligible.

 

No, you just said downtime. You didn't say boss fight. You didn't say downtime in a boss fight. It's pretty clear you weren't aware of the relic proc issue and you were one of the guys that spammed Med Shot before a boss fight to get Supercharge stacks w/o taking off your relics first as you were completely ignorant of the side effects. No one is forcing you to be cognizant about the small details of how your character works. And I encourage you to continue to spam Med Shot before boss fights w/o taking off your relics first. I'm sure it will make you happier.

 

IO : On a standard rotation, SSC Superburn and only Superburn accounts for 300 DPS on dummy. The DoTs buff is another 20 DPS.. Relics procs however accounts for about 200 DPS. I don,t know for you, but for me delaying SSC for your relics procs is wasting way more DPS than delaying your proc and getting more SSC uptime.

 

Again, it depends on circumstances. Consider that in the example I cited above, you are not forgoing your entire 10 stacks of Supercharge, you are forgoing one stack. In no way shape of form is that worth wasting a relic proc. Once the time horizon until combat resumption lengthens though, the opportunity cost of giving up multiple stacks grows.

 

Also, on a mathematical note is is worth understanding that not using a single Med/Kolto shot prior to combat does not eliminate your Supercharge Celerity/Cell effects, it simply defers it. For example let's say that it takes the Merc X GCDs to go from 0 to 10 stacks, and then consume the full 10 sec of Celerity/Cell. For Arsenal/Gunnery, X might be equal to 20-30. But for any rotation at least equal to X+2, The Merc that did not use Med/Kolto Shot while behind the Voidstar screen still gets all the Supercharge benefits that the Med Shot happy Merc did. Except that for the first two GCDs (presumably Priming Shot and TM/Grav) he didn't have that initial 0.1% buff. You literally are gaining only 6-7 damage by using Med Shot behind that screen in exchange for probably losing a relic proc. Not good.

Edited January 9, 2015 by Macroeconomics

[cs_zoltan]

No, you just said downtime. You didn't say boss fight. You didn't say downtime in a boss fight. It's pretty clear you weren't aware of the relic proc issue and you were one of the guys that spammed Med Shot before a boss fight to get Supercharge stacks w/o taking off your relics first as you were completely ignorant of the side effects. No one is forcing you to be cognizant about the small details of how your character works. And I encourage you to continue to spam Med Shot before boss fights w/o taking off your relics first. I'm sure it will make you happier.

 

 

 

Again, it depends on circumstances. Consider that in the example I cited above, you are not forgoing your entire 10 stacks of Supercharge, you are forgoing one stack. In no way shape of form is that worth wasting a relic proc. Once the time horizon until combat resumption lengthens though, the opportunity cost of giving up multiple stacks grows.

 

Also, on a mathematical note is is worth understanding that not using a single Med/Kolto shot prior to combat does not eliminate your Supercharge Celerity/Cell effects, it simply defers it. For example let's say that it takes the Merc X GCDs to go from 0 to 10 stacks, and then consume the full 10 sec of Celerity/Cell. For Arsenal/Gunnery, X might be equal to 20-30. But for any rotation at least equal to X+2, The Merc that did not use Med/Kolto Shot while behind the Voidstar screen still gets all the Supercharge benefits that the Med Shot happy Merc did. Except that for the first two GCDs (presumably Priming Shot and TM/Grav) he didn't have that initial 0.1% buff. You literally are gaining only 6-7 damage by using Med Shot behind that screen in exchange for probably losing a relic proc. Not good.

 

You are so retarded it hurst.

 

1. Downtime is downtime. Only you would thing that I meant in-between bosses.

2. 10-15second delay on your firs relic proc during a 7min bossfight is like literally nothing.

[Macroeconomics]

You are so retarded it hurst.

 

1. Downtime is downtime. Only you would thing that I meant in-between bosses.

2. 10-15second delay on your firs relic proc during a 7min bossfight is like literally nothing.

 

1) Downtime is not uniform. The big issue here is expected time until resumption of combat. That is what drives the efficient use (or non-use) of Med Shot during any downtime. We get that you were completely unaware of the relic proc issue. But now even as you are aware of it, you still fail to grasp that even in a combat pause during a boss fight, the time until combat resumption is the key to determining whether you should use Med Shot. Ignorantly spamming Med Shot regardless of circumstances does seem to fit you though.

 

2) 6-7 damage, not dps, 6-7 DAMAGE is virtually nothing in a fight of any length. It certainly is worth less than a single relic proc. Yet that is what you are gaining by using Med Shot in a tight window before combat resumption.